History

Benedictine tradition of “Ora et Labora”

In 1981 I started as a 14 year old boy, my career as an apprentice to my teacher in the profession Brother Laurentius van Dijk, a Benedictine Monk. So I stepped into a very long and rich tradition of monastic bookbinding. Brother Lawrence was born on June 4, 1914 and died after more than 70 years living as a monk in peace with the Lord on March 17, 2005.

The tradition of monastic bookbinders in which Brother Lawrence was standing, begins in the Abbey of Solesmes and runs through the Abbey of Wisques (late 19th century) in France to Paul’s Abbey (early 20th century) in Oosterhout in the Netherlands. From Oosterhout explained Brother Lawrence with Fr. Hub Eggen in 1951 the basic for the bookbinding in the monastery Saint Benedictusberg Vaals. In this beautiful studio Brother Lawrence helped me to make own the tricks of the beautiful craft of bookbinding .